what to believe when reading the BBC

BBC does it again… not that I expected any better from the corporate news agency which has made a point of convoluting the truth about what happens in occupied Palestine.

apparently, BBC didn’t have a reporter in Gaza to get the wounded Palestinian’s story –the one shot through the chest in the incident; the one who happens to be an extremely poor farm labourer with 15 siblings and who was shot while working among vegetables.

apparently the BBC only had stock photos of Israeli soldiers and couldn’t be bothered commissioning the work of any of Gaza’s freelance photographers or established journalists to go to the Kamal Adwan hospital and take a photo of this man:

A Palestinian man has been killed and an Israeli soldier injured in exchanges of fire over the Israel-Gaza border.

So, BBC, why do you insist on blurring the truth? Why do you lead readers to believe that the youth (20) pictured above was a resistance fighter (or terrorist, as you might have it)? that the valiant soldier injured was in fact injured by the man pictured above… or by the 16 year old shot dead?

Yes, you do graciously admit that:

“The dead man was one of two farmers fired at across the border, said Gaza medical officials. But Israel said the men had been acting suspiciously.”

And i have to agree, working on a vegetable plot is pretty damn suspicious. I’ve seen it often enough, and i wonder, just what are they doing with that parsley?

finally, after the

BIG, ATTENTIONGRABBINGHEADLINES,

you admit, oh BBC, that LATER:

“Later, at least two mortar shells were fired into Israel, landing on a beach and injuring an Israeli soldier.”

later when? after the 16 year old impoverished farmer was shot in the heart? after the young man pictured above was shot through the chest? or much later? does it matter? did these men deserve to be shot at? were they in Israel’s arbitrarily and unilaterally imposed “buffer zone”, what Israel says is a band of 300 m along the Green Line that Palestinians are not allowed to enter (what gives Israel this authority to impose this? why is there not a like ‘buffer zone’ on the Israeli side?)? and if they were, did they act as suspiciously as the deaf farmer who was shot by Israeli soldiers in the Faraheen region east of Khan Younis on February 18th? Boy, he was suspicious alright. Pushing that broken down pickup truck. Pretty damn threatening, he was. It’s good that soldiers had watched him for a long, long time, over half an hour, before they shot that suspicious Palestinian potential-terrorist “farmer”. Good also that the Israeli occupation soldiers took out his cousin a couple of weeks earlier, on January 27th. Same family, same bad blood. Spilled now. And lots more like them.

But i do wonder if I understood the next part in BBC’s version of the recent “shots exchanged” incident:

“The area has been largely quiet since the end of Israel’s offensive into Gaza at the start of the year.”

Yeah, yeah, I guess if you don’t count the tens killed and injured in the border zones, or the razing of farmland by Israeli military bulldozers, or the burning of farmland by Israeli occupation soldiers at the border, then yeah, it’s been tranquil here.

At approximately 18:30, Israeli military vehicles moved nearly 150 meters into the east of Gaza City. Israeli troops shot and arrested Ahmed Zuhair al-Semari, 22. Al-Semari was hit by a gunshot that entered the abdomen and exited the back. He was transferred to an Israeli hospital where he was pronounced dead at approximately 16:00 on Monday, 20 July 2009. The victim was mentally disabled.

Two Israeli army shells landed in the family houses of the Abu Ayish clan in the Johr al-Deek village, just north of the al-Bureij refugee camp and about 1.5 kilometers from the border with Israel. The shelling caused critical injury to Husam Abu Ayish, Hiyam’s 21-year-old cousin and minor wounds to Hiyam’s father and sister, Nawal. For hours after the attack, the Israeli army denied any involvement and claimed the attack was the result of mortar shells fired by Palestinians. But late on Thursday, the Israeli army changed its story, admitting that Palestinian civilians were hit “accidentally” by Israeli army fire directed at Palestinian gunmen in the area, according to Israeli media.

“An Israeli military spokeswoman said soldiers fired on the Palestinian men after they had ignored “the usual warnings” to move away from the border, killing one and injuring at least one more.

She said an injured man had been given medical treatment by the Israeli army.”

According to the testimony of the injured farmer (for what his testimony is worth. Is it worth anything, BBC?), no warning was given, the shots came suddenly, his friend –the slain 16 year old farmer –died quickly of his gunshot wound. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights field officer corroborates this, adding that the body of the killed youth was then taken by Israeli soldiers (to administer life-reviving first aid?) and returned via the Red Cross some hours later.

But all of these details don’t matter, do they BBC, because it’s just an age-old conflict, its about religion, isn’t it? Nothing to do with occupation, siege, murder and war crimes that Israel is never held accountable for…

It certainly doesn’t matter if a reader understands the context of the situation in Gaza, let alone those details.

Why did those silly impoverished farm labourers go so close to Israel’s fence anyway? Just asking for it, aren’t they? Why don’t they get a respectable job in an office or factory or something…

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3 comments

Eve, I read this article and others by you on Uruknet.
Bless your compassion and witness! Your thought is keen and your words are powerful, too. Palestine needs these blessings so badly–but also so much more. God protect you and the people you champion!

The BBC is under Zionist control. We see the bias time and time again, not just in reports from the field but in studio discussions and interviews. Anything the BBC says about Palestine, we take with a big pinch of salt.

One question regarding the latest bout israeli organ harvesting; could it not be that this is why the israelis in this horrendous case(see quote below) was taking this palestinian body and then chanelled it through the red cross “some hours later”; to collect organs? –
Why are they taking dead palestinians bodies? It dosent make sense, or? Does this happen all the time when the israelis have killed someone, Eva!?

“The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights field officer corroborates this, adding that the body of the killed youth was then taken by Israeli soldiers (to administer life-reviving first aid?) and returned via the Red Cross “some hours later.”

about me

Eva Bartlett: Head first towards the opposition
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Canadian activist/freelance journalistst. I've lived cumulative ~3 years in Gaza, spent time in Lebanon and visited Syria 3 times since April 2014. Anti-zionist, anti-imperialist, pro-justice.